Page:The Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets, Volume 3.djvu/53

Rh of Scanderberg; he has his antagonist's coarseness, but not his strength. Collier replied; for contest has his delight, he was not to be frighted from his purpose or his prey.

The cause of Congreve was not tenable: whatever glosses he might use for the defence of palliation of single passages, the general tenour and tendency of his plays must always be condemned. It is acknowledged, with universal conviction, that the perusal of his works will make no man better; and that their ultimate effect is to represent pleasure in alliance with vice, and to relax those obligations by which life ought to be regulated.

Of the powers by which this important victory was atchieved, a quotation from Love for Love, for the remark upon it, may afford a specimen.

Sir Samps. "Sampson's a very good name; for your Sampsons were strong dogs from the beginning."

. III.